"...there is a growing awareness, an impatience among younger Palestinians who use Israeli media management as a model that Palestinians should copy. Time and again I heard Palestinians in all positions defend what Israel does in media management, saying every nation should put thought into presenting their own case in the best possible way."

"Many Islamic movements today are understandably preoccupied with political and other issues concerning the impact and hegemony of the West over our societies. Indeed, the internal conservatism which is often a response to external threats is probably a factor making women’s situation worse, or at least preventing it from improving. However, Islamic movements must take a lead in addressing such social problems, not only because we cannot afford to leave the field open to Western organizations which are all to willing to exploit the understandable grievances of some Muslim women, but because addressing such injustices is the Islamically correct thing to do, and precisely the sort of action for which will be one day be judged."

"...it is simply absurd to contemplate reviving the Arab civilisation, whilst excluding Islam. The essence of being an Arab is intrinsically linked with Islam. Thus, revival of the Arabs in any sense means a revival of Islam. The Arab civilisation is rather a subset of the greater Islamic civilisation, which encompassed Arabs and non-Arabs."

"The constitution calls for a presidential system with a powerful parliament and equal rights for men and women. At the same time it says that civil law will be supreme, but the country has been renamed the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In short, Afghanistan will be a mongrel state that is neither properly Islamic nor properly secular."

"The UNHCR must assume a more pro-active role, particularly in light of disturbing political changes and the likely scenario of a forced regional settlement of the Palestinian refugee issue. It must not wait until hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees are threatened with expulsion or worse, lining up the border with Israel in make-shift camps. The future must not be that bleak and there can be ways of alleviating these refugees’ suffering until a just and durable solution, in line with Resolution 194, is found to their cause."

:: A view of Iraq from the perspective of an NGO group who witnessed and reported abuse of the Iraqi prisoners ::

"There is little doubt that Qaddafi is in a desperate situation that urgently needs a solution. Not only is he faced with internal problems, but both his pro-Arab and pro-African policies have failed, to the extent that he threatened recently to take Libya out of the Arab League. But his choice will only succeed in creating more problems, not only for himself but also for other Muslim countries."

"We would be naïve if we imagined that the world will suddenly become a paradise rather than the hell it is now as soon as a Democratic president steps into the Oval Office. However, there is no doubt that the forthcoming presidential elections will bring to loggerheads two antithetical images of America, one a ruthless and arrogant bully, the other an America one can at least speak to, if not necessarily the America one dreams of."